Does FinTech promote entrepreneurial intention among women? Studying the mediating role of financial inclusion.

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2439996/v1

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Does FinTech promote entrepreneurial intention among women? Studying the mediating role of financial inclusion.

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2439996/v1

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The most recent innovation to make FinTech more generally accessible and reasonably priced with the primary objective of financial inclusion is Mobile Money (MoMo). This study examines the role of mobile money in arousing entrepreneurial intention among women belonging to northern India, in addition to studying the mediating role of financial inclusion between mobile money and women entrepreneurial intention. The current study addresses Fin Tech (Mobile Money), financial inclusion and women entrepreneurial intention. To undertake the study, we considered 399 respondents and performed structural equation modelling analysis. The outcomes support mobile money as a proxy for FinTech adoption exerts a positive influence on women entrepreneurial intention. Besides, the results indicate that MoMo positively influences financial inclusion. The results also showed a favourable relationship between financial inclusion and women entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, the estimated model supported the hypothesis, financial inclusion mediates the MoMo and women entrepreneurial intention link.

Business and commerce/Business and management

Business and commerce/Finance

Mobile Money

FinTech

Financial Inclusion

Entrepreneurial Intention

Women Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is pivotal for socio-economic development of a country, as it provides employment opportunities to millions of people. It is one of the crucial inputs required for long-term economic growth of a nation (Wu et.al., 2022). The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) defines entrepreneurship as “any attempt at new business or new venture creation, such as self-employment, a new business organisation, or the expansion of an existing business, by an individual, a team of individuals, or an established business.” As per GEM India Report (2021-22), entrepreneurial activity of India with its Total Entrepreneurial Activity rate (i.e, percentage of adults (aged 18–64) who establish or run a new business) has expanded to 14.4% in 2021, from 5.3% in 2020. It has been found that young people, especially students usually have a strong interest in an entrepreneurial career, as careers in entrepreneurship provide them the opportunity of becoming financially independent, leading to employment generation, innovation, and economic growth (Bergmann, H.,et. al., 2016; Ekore and Okekeocha, 2012).

Henley (2007) defines entrepreneurship as an intentional activity, emphasising that there is a key link between entrepreneurship and intention, as entrepreneurial intentions develop at least a year before the setting up of a new venture. Entrepreneurial intention acts as a precursor to entrepreneurial action involving recognition of opportunities, searching for relevant information, identifying necessary inputs and devising different business strategies (Henley et. al., 2017). Thompson (2009:676) defines Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) as "self-acknowledged conviction by a person that they intend to set up a new business venture and consciously plan to do so at some point in the future".

India has been actively collaborating with different national and International donor partners to give practical shape to various reforms needed for achieving its UN Sustainable Development Goal 17 – “Revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development”. Women’s small-scale economic activities form an essential part of such reforms and are paid due attention at each phase of the various development programmes. The role of Women entrepreneurs in economic development is inevitable. Globally, the number of female business owners is continuously increasing. The average total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) was 11.45% for women and 15.82% for men in the period 2019–2020, according to GEM. However, the rate of female entrepreneurship is somewhat lower than the rate of male entrepreneurship. Women's entrepreneurship is still an underutilised source of economic growth and development, despite the fact that governments, scholars, and politicians from various countries have extensively acknowledged its importance.

Many of the 2030 SDGs have focused on enhancing financial inclusion, which currently constitutes a key policy priority of governments’ agendas of various developing countries. Financial inclusion is the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate availability of credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as the weaker sections and low income groups at an affordable cost (Rangarajan Committee, 2008). Over 1 billion of the 2 billion adults worldwide without a bank account in 2014 were women. In developing nations, women continue to remain more financially excluded than men (Ghosh and Vinod, 2017). According to Hess & Klapper, (2021), only 65% of women possess a bank account, compared to 72% of men. More specifically, the gender gap in developing economies remained steady at 9% (Mndolwa & Alhassan, 2020). Undoubtedly, diversity in terms of gender, age, nationality, and religion among others, is a trending topic in research (P. Sendra Pons, et.al., 2021), this phenomenon puts forward that special efforts and programs are required to foster and support women’s entrepreneurial intention along with strengthening of financial inclusion.

To address financial inclusion for women, India has employed many interventions/tactics, Fin Tech being the recent one. According to a 2017 report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the FinTech industry has experienced rapid growth, bringing in $19 billion from investors in 2016 as opposed to $12.2 billion in 2014. Fintech has simplified the funding process by providing loans without collateral. Lenders comprise of those people who have abundant money to lend and borrowers encompass people from any community who can easily borrow any amount of loan. This has resulted in elimination of red tapism to a greater extent (Yacob et al., 2021). The GOI has set up platform for the FinTech industry with a special focus on flexible and innovative digital banking in accordance with regulations like the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Aadhaar, and open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Mobile Money (MoMo) is the latest development, though, to make FinTech more widely available and affordable with the primary goal of financial inclusion. In general, the term "mobile money" refers to financial-regulated payment services delivered from or made possible by a mobile device. In many developing nations, MoMo is one of the famous and commonly used fintech products (GSMA, 2019). It plays a vital role in the economy by facilitating small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in accessing various financial services, contributing to their growth. Mobile money services are used by SMEs to send and receive payments, repay loans, pay taxes and other obligations. This helps SMEs grow in terms of market share, revenue, and profitability while also saving time and money. At least 1.7 billion of the 2 billion individuals who do not yet have a bank account possess a mobile phone (Popescu, 2019). The overall cost of owning and using a mobile phone has been quickly declining, as a result, even poor people who intend to do business are able to purchase mobiles and process small-value transactions at low cost. Nowadays, mobile phone is being viewed as a necessity by businessmen. It has been reported that Mobile money has a great potential to boost women entrepreneurship and regulations designed to guarantee interest payments on MoMo deposits may promote personal savings or boost savings habits, both of which may improve entrepreneurial intention in developing nations.

A growing number of research on mobile money have been published in recent years as a result of the FinTech industry's rapid growth and the complexity of the elements that affect their use and adoption. According to recent studies, many publications have examined the elements that affect the outcomes, consumer acceptance, and uptake of mobile payment systems especially during post Covid-19 pandemic, customer satisfaction, security concerns, design attributes, and innovation (Al-Qudah et al., 2022; Makki et al., 2016; Dahlberg et al., 2015 and Kapoor et al., 2015). Despite the rise in number of publications on mobile payments, there is little peer-reviewed literature about the role of mobile money in facilitating financial inclusion and promoting entrepreneurial intention. Due to this gap, some recommendations are made that a thorough literature study still needs to be done and that future research on the use of mobile money in developing countries like India needs to be done. This study aims to understand the role of mobile money in promoting entrepreneurial intention among women, and mediating role of financial inclusion between mobile money and entrepreneurial intention. This study considers only the segment of women students in higher educational institutions possessing smart phones who intend to use mobile money as a medium to start business enterprises.

The remaining part of the paper is composed as follows: Section 2 throws light on literature review and hypothesis development; Section 3 elucidates research design encompassing sample selection, methodology, and the empirical models; Section 4 presents empirical results; Section 5 comprises of discussion and conclusions; and concludes with Section 6 depicting the research limitations and suggestions.

2.1 Fin Tech (MoMo) adoption and Women Entrepreneurial Intention:

Irrespective of the gender, mobile money plays a crucial role in encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship. This indicates the relevance of mobile money in changing livelihoods and creating jobs across the whole economy (Kedir & Kouame, 2022). Mobile money can offer inclusive benefits to populations that might otherwise be cut off from networks providing financial access. A recent study confirms an affirmative link between investment and mobile money adoption in 16 Sub-Saharan African economies (Islam & Muzi, 2022). However, it uncovers an interesting point that only women-owned firms showed positive link between investment and mobile money and not for enterprises owned by men. Besides, it highlighted that women-owned firms may be tempted in investing in mobile money (MoMo) or financial technology due to easy availability of suppliers and high credit demand (as proxy for liquidity).

A stream of researchers (Koomson et al., 2020a; Demirgu€ç-Kunt et al., 2018 & Donovan, 2012) marked that poor nations have found MoMo accounts as apt mechanisms for conserving money. MoMo activities facilitate interest as they are governed by the central banks of many economies. Owners of M-Kesho accounts in Kenya receive interest payments ranging from 0.5–3% annually while depending on how much money is saved. In 2018, interest rates on MTN MoMo deposits in Ghana ranged from 5 to 7% (Koomson et al., 2022). Business enterprises can be established using deposits and interest earned on MoMo accounts. In line with this, researchers (Demirgu€ç-Kunt et al., 2018; Peprah & Koomson, 2015) believe that new businesses in high-income and poor nations significantly come from personal savings. Global Findex data highlights a huge gap in money savings of adults belonging to high-income and underdeveloped countries, i.e., 71% and 43%, respectively (Demirgu€ç-Kunt et al., 2018). In high-income nations, 14–26% of individuals’ have a drive for savings; however, people from SSA nations mainly save money using MoMo platforms to establish or grow a business. This indicates the potential of MoMo to facilitate entrepreneurial drive among the people of SSA nations.

Accordingly, digital credit in addition to savings has become a new modus-operandi of MoMo providers to ensure widespread acceptance of MoMo (Francis et al., 2017; Mbiti & Weil, 2016). However, such an addition led to the collaboration between MoMo operators and financial institutions to offer short-term finances (Francis et al., 2017). Thus, a small business could be easily started using digital credit accessible through a MoMo account. Given the above literature, we assume FinTech adoption arouses entrepreneurial intention among the women. Accordingly, we hypothesize:

H1. FinTech (MoMo) adoption positively affects women entrepreneurial intention.

2.2 Fin Tech (MoMo) adoption and Financial inclusion:

Financial technology can act as a significant development catalyst by making finances accessible through mobile money accounts and transactions. In support of this, Kedir & Kouame (2022) argued that FinTech and mobile money in Africa has brought positive development in financial inclusion. RedSeer Consulting claims that India is an emerging MoMo market with an estimate of 800 million unique payment users by 2025 from 160 million in 2020. According to studies (Bongomin & Ntayi, 2020; World Bank, 2017), the use and adoption of mobile money has expanded micro business owners' financial access. In fact, mobile money acceptance and usage has helped MNOs to expand the range of financial services. Besides, such an intervention (MoMo) prioritizes convenience, affordability, safety, and consumer protection, which ensures wider acceptance and usage. Due of the sizeable unbanked population and poor levels of financial inclusion, mobile money services have gained popularity in emerging nations - the most popular being M-pesa. Such interventions have brought commendable change in the volume of money transactions. For example, African continent experienced transaction level of more than $700 billion (Global System for Mobile Communications –GSMA, 2022 report). Besides, without requiring well established bank branches, mobile money solutions are able to provide economical, immediate, and dependable financial services (GSMA (2017; Mbogo, 2010). These hassle-free mobile money solutions ensure financial inclusiveness of MSMEs in rural areas (World Bank, 2017). In line with this, Okello et al. (2018) marked that Uganda used the adoption and use of mobile money as a tactic to ensure financial inclusion in its rural areas.

Despite the success of mobile money solutions such as M-Pesa in Kenya and G-Cash in the Philippines, India has been lagging behind. With the introduction of "demonetization" in November 2016, the Indian government invalidated 86% of the banknotes already in use, resulting in a brief cash shortage. The use of mobile payments increased immediately afterward and then decreased again within six months after banknotes resumed being in use. However, a recent empirical evidence (Pal, et al., 2020) highlighted the expansion of using mobile payments in India. Given the above deliberations on mobile money solutions, we can argue that mobile money solutions have great potential to encourage financial inclusion in India. Specifically, such tactics may bring weaker sections in the ambit of financial inclusion. Based on the above literature, we hypothesize:

H2. FinTech (MoMo) adoption significantly affects financial inclusion of women entrepreneurs.

2.3. Financial Inclusion and Women Entrepreneurial Intention:

The growth and development of an organization highly depends on financial inclusion. Finance can be provided directly or indirectly, and credit access can be made easier, as a third policy option. Consequently, government initiatives focused on offering funding or special treatment to startups, smooth access to bank loans by reducing capital requirements, the establishment of investment firms, credit with marginal rates of interest and credit guarantee schemes encourage setting up of new business units (Urbano & Alvarez, 2014). Entrepreneurial intentions heavily depend on government backing and availability of finance (Ojiaku et.al.,2018). Women entrepreneurs across the globe, have drawn much attention due to the significant impact they have on each country's economy, notably to become job givers and reduce poverty, which eventually facilitates economic growth and progress (Nguse et al., 2022). Women entrepreneurship is an emerging trend in many nations, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, and Tanzania. Typically, women start their businesses with limited funds saved from household expenses, friends, or other sources. Women are required to provide collateral security for obtaining bank loans (Mulili, 2020).

Financial inclusion can be a major factor in encouraging young people to undertake entrepreneurship (Lyons & Contreras, 2017). A meta-analysis of 21 developing countries (Lyons and Contreras, 2017) found that financial inclusion stimulates entrepreneurial intentions among youth. It also showed that youth availing financial services have 5.3% higher entrepreneurial intentions than those who don’t. Besides, young people's independence and self-esteem could increase if they have access to credit and savings. (Koloma, 2021). Thus, here we hypothesise that:

H3: Financial inclusion positively and significantly affects Women Entrepreneurial Intention.

2.4 FinTech (MoMo), Financial Inclusion and Women Entrepreneurial Intention:

“The progress made in getting people into the folds of the financial system, especially in low- and middle-income economies, has been made possible, in part, through innovations such as digital financial services, including mobile money” (IMF report, 2020). In 2019, India remained at third position in FinTech investments after United States and the United Kingdom and surpassed China. FinTech Convergence Council reports an increase to $10 billion from January 2016 to June 2020 in cumulative investments in India’s FinTech. Further, a 17-fold jump has been recorded in adult Indians access to financial services from 73 in 2015 to 1,265 in 2019 using mobile networks. The International Finance Corporation (2018) argues that the mobile money has played a key role in encouraging availability of financial services, especially for MSMEs (Bongomin & Ntayi, 2020). Further, the low cost mobile money solutions can enhance the pace of financial inclusion in far flung areas (Rangarajan Committee, 2008).

Financial inclusion and women entrepreneurial intentions concern policymakers due to their effect on employment generation, growth of economy, and empowerment of women. Besides, financial inclusion promotes entrepreneurship and helps to uplift the female community (Fareed et al., 2017). In line with this, Koloma (2021) argues that financial inclusion acts as a great stimulator for encouraging entrepreneurial intentions among youth. Besides, Mulili (2020) argued that financial inclusion financially empowers women to the extent that they face economic shocks and effectively maintain their finances (Mulili, 2020).

Since the above literature highlights that mobile money predicts financial inclusion which in turn stimulates women entrepreneurship, we may assume financial inclusion as a facilitator in mobile money (FinTech) and women entrepreneurship intention link. Besides, the existing research has shown financial inclusion as a mediator in various relationships. For example, Domeher et al. (2022) argued that financial inclusion facilitates financial innovation and economic growth link. Similarly, some researchers (Demir et al., 2022; Chinoda & Mashamba, 2021) posited mediating mechanism of financial inclusion in Fin Tech and Income Inequality relationship. Furthermore, Malik et al. (2022) argued that governance quality predicts financial stability through financial inclusion. Thus, we hypothesize:

H4: Financial Inclusion mediates the relationship between FinTech (MoMo) and Women Entrepreneurial Intention.

3.1 Sample Selection & Data

The study objectives outlined in the aforementioned hypotheses were accomplished using simple random sampling. Each member of the population has an equal chance and likelihood of being selected when using simple random sampling. As the selection of items in this scenario entirely depends on luck or chance, this sampling procedure is also sometimes referred to as a method of chance. MBA students who completed their course in the winter term 2021/2022 were surveyed in August-September 2022. To let the respondents, know about the survey, emails were sent to them (or snail mail if no email address was provided). They had the option of responding to the survey online or via mail delivery. A standard core questionnaire was utilised for the survey, and the same questions were asked to every respondent at all colleges and universities.

3.2 Study variables

Measures from previously used questionnaires were employed to gather the data for the empirical analyses. The definition of each variable is shown in Table 1, along with the specific study from which it was obtained. ‘Mobile Money’ was taken as the independent variable and was measured by adapting Acs et al. (2014) scale. The scale comprised of five items. ‘Women Entrepreneurial Intention’ was treated as a dependent variable and was measured using three-item scale of Chen et al. (2020). The scale exhibited acceptable Cronbach’s alpha (0.739) reliability that was more than 0.70. For assessing mediating effect of financial inclusion on mobile money and women entrepreneurial intention, nineteen-item scale of Cihak et al. (2012), Ardic et al. (2011) & Beck et al. (2008) was adapted. Each item was rated on a five-point likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The prepared questionnaire was also reviewed and validated by the five experts prior to the initial distribution.

The proposed theoretical model for the current investigation, which includes the previously hypothesised linkages, is shown in Fig. 1. The data collection process took about three months. We distributed 513 questionnaires among the respondents, and receive back 423, depicting response rate of 82.45%. However, we found only 399 questionnaires for analysis.

The sample details are shown in Table 2.

3.3 Evaluation of the variables used

Considering Gaskin & Happell (2014) in the present study, using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), quantitative data were analysed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 18.0 software, respectively, to test the validity and reliability of the sample at two different levels. Further, using SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 21.0, a series of confirmatory and exploratory analyses were performed to determine the validity, reliability, and appropriateness of the employed variables.

We checked the reliability or internal consistency using the indicator of Cronbach’s α (Diamantopoulos et al., 2008). It signifies the internal coherence among the set of items as a group. All Cronbach’s α coefficients exceeded the minimum recommended level of 0.7 (Hair et al., 2019), thereby, signifying the reliability of the study variables. study variables. Besides, EFA was conducted with extraction method of principal component analysis to check the degree of unidimensionality of the study variables.

We used Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient to test the acceptability of the sample adaptation. The KMO value of more than 0.5 indicated the sampling adequacy. Besides, the Bartlett’s sphericity test results were also acceptable (p ≤ 0.001). The primary variables' communalities (> 0.5) demonstrated that they are adequately represented in the common factor space. Also, the factor loadings for the study variables exceed the recommended minimum value (R² > 0.5). Thus, these results show that the data is adequate for the main analysis.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to test the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales used in the study. Specifically, convergent validity was evaluated using the factor loads of the study variables. Following the recommendations of Hair et al. (2006), we confirmed the convergent validity as the coefficients didn’t show significant difference from ‘0’ and also the all the loads between the latent and variables were greater than 0.7. Thus, we can posit that latent variables explain the observed variables in the study model.

Further, the results confirmed the discriminant validity as the variances differ significantly from ‘0’ and the link was weak between study constructs. Additionally, the correlation between each scale pair was lower than 0.8. Also, all of the constructs' extracted composite reliability and variance indicators were higher than the minimum required levels of 0.7 and 0.5, respectively (Hair et al., 2006). Thus, the discriminant validity was also ensured for the study model.

We assessed the study hypotheses using structural equation modelling (SEM) through AMOS 21.0. Accordingly, we developed a structural equations model. The model fits such as absolute, incremental and parsimony fits showed a reasonable fit of the model. The hypothesized paths in the study model was analyzed through statistical significance, structural loadings and R² coefficients.

The study results confirmed the three proposed hypotheses. Specifically, the results supported hypothesis, H1 (β = 0.498, p-value < 0.001), i.e., mobile money as a proxy for FinTech adoption exerts a positive influence on women entrepreneurial intention. Besides, the results support hypothesis, H2 (β = 0.326, p-value < 0.05), i.e., MoMo positively influences financial inclusion. The results also showed a positive relationship between financial inclusion and women entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.289 and p-value < 0.05), supporting hypothesis, H3. Furthermore, the estimated model supported hypothesis, H4 (β = 0.049, p-value < 0.05), i.e., financial inclusion mediates the MoMo and women entrepreneurial intention link.

The estimated model showed 63.09% predictive power related to the women entrepreneurial intention, which is quite impressive in comparison to other models studying women’s intention towards entrepreneurship.

The findings of this research summed up in Fig. 2 that mobile money as a proxy for fintech adoption has a positive influence on women’s entrepreneurial intention is in line with the findings of (Kraus et al. 2019). Financial inclusion is positively influenced by fintech and is also supported by the statistical measures (β = .326, p < .05) which is in line with the research of (Berman, A., Cano-Kollmann, M. & Mudambi, R; Festa et.al.). The statistical support for the positive relationship between women’s entrepreneurial intention (β = .289, p < .05) is in line with the research of (Hinings et al. 2018) and The women’s entrepreneurial intention and fintech relationship being mediated by financial inclusion has found statistical support (β = .049, p < .05)

As the fintech is growing at a faster pace in India and the Indian government's landmark policy decisions like the Digital India initiative, central bank digital currency and National broadband mission to connect 100% of all the villages through broadband connectivity by the end of 2022 are creating new avenues for digital entrepreneurship among the rural population, we believe this study would one of the attempts in understanding the link between the Fintech and digital entrepreneurship and an extension to some previous researches that explored the relationship between digital transformation and entrepreneurship in general (Bohnsack et al. 2018; Pesch et al. 2018). Rural women in India being one of society's marginalised sections have been underrepresented compared to their male counterparts and urban women. The data reveals that the share of women in entrepreneurial activities in India is 8 million out of a total of 58.5 million which is less than 14% (Bardhan S., 2022). The fintech (MoMo) could be one of the positive outcomes of government initiatives and would induce digital entrepreneurship. Owing the cultural factors, most of the rural women in India have been in unpaid household jobs (92%), while male counterparts doing household jobs stood at a mere 27% (Time Use Survey,2019). Besides this, a large percentage of women in rural India are engaged in unpaid agricultural activities. The fintech would induce entrepreneurship and broadband connectivity would ensure that the female folk can realise their entrepreneurial intentions without having to actually move out of their social spheres. This would raise the women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities, make them economically self-reliant, create inclusion social and economic of the marginally excluded segment and bridge the gender divide. Our research has tried to keep the preceding social challenges in mind and empirically examine the role of Fintech adoption affecting the financial inclusion of the w by giving them control over their finances and greater autonomy and control over their earnings. This ultimately leads to their entrepreneurial intentions. The rationale of having control over the finances and being financially in control of the decision is the women could have a chance of investing their earnings in micro-digital start-ups paving the way for larger entrepreneurial intent.

The research findings of this paper although provide early insights into fintech, financial inclusion and women entrepreneurship, the future researchers can build upon the idea to dig deeper and study the other contexts of the concept like financial literacy as one of the mediating variables, comparison between rural and urban areas and a broader sample frame consisting of a larger national representative sample. Although all care has been taken in minimising the sampling and personal biases, the findings of this research can be generalised with caution in other cultures and contexts, owing to the smaller sample size and a homogeneous group of MBA students.

Our research centered its instrument on some previous researchers’ developed scales. Even though acceptable results were produced biases may still have crept in due to the subjective consciousness of the sample population. Also having taken only MBA students for the study, the same being representative of the overall population cannot be generalized and a more holistic sample population would be needed to make it representational of the population.

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

The questionnaire and methodology for this study were approved by the Departmental Research Committee of the Central University of Kashmir.

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Table 1

Variable	Symbol	Adapted from the previous study
Mobile Money	MoMo	Acs et al. (2014)
Women Entrepreneurial Intention	WEI	Chen et al. (2020)
Financial Inclusion	FI	Cihak et al. (2012), Ardic et al. (2011) & Beck et al. (2008)

Table 2

Item

Details

Number

Percentage

Age

21-25

26-30

31-35

273

102

68.42

25.56

0.06

Marital Status

Married

Unmarried

362

9.27

90.72

Table 3

Constructs	Items	Standardized Loadings	Composite Reliability	Variance Extracted
Women Entrepreneurial Intention	WEI1	0.692	0.950	21.006
	WEI2	0.877
	WEI3	0.817
	WEI4	0.898
	WEI5	0.731
	WEI6	0.911
	WEI7	0.748
	WEI8	0.846
	WEI9	0.804
	WEI10	0.821
	WEI11	0.905
	WEI12	0.862
	WEI13	0.796
	WEI14	0.774
	WEI15	0.885
	WEI16	0.835
	WEI17	0.829
	WEI18	0.758
	WEI19	0.783
Mobile Money	MoMo1	0.806	0.831	43.785
	MoMo2	0.835
	MoMo3	0.867
Financial Inclusion	FI1	0.896	0.860	27.172
	FI2	0.942
	FI3	0.784
	FI4	0.857
	FI5	0.812

Note: WEI: Women entrepreneurial intention; MoMo: Mobile money; FI: Financial inclusion

Table 4

Model fit indices	Value obtained	Recommended value by Hair et al., 2006
GFI	0.892	Close to 0.900
AGFI	0.911	Close to 0.900
CFI	0.921	Close to 0.900
NFI	0.937	Close to 0.900
IFI	0.949	Close to 0.900
RMSEA	0.042	Less than 0.080

Note: GFI goodness-of-fit index, AGFI Adjusted goodness-of-fit index, CFI comparative goodness-of-fit, NFI normed fit index, IFI incremental fit index, RMSEA root-mean-square error of approximation.

Table 5

Hypotheses	Path	Standardized Co-efficient (β)	p-value	Result
H1	MoMo→WEI	0.498	0.000	Supported
H2	MoMo→FI	0.326	0.027	Supported
H3	FI→WEI	0.289	0.016	Supported
H4	MoMo→FI→WEI	0.049	0.040	Supported

Note1: WEI: Women entrepreneurial intention; MoMo: Mobile money; FI: Financial inclusion

Note2: R² = 0.6309

(Not answered)

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Does FinTech promote entrepreneurial intention among women? Studying the mediating role of financial inclusion.

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Abstract

Figures

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review & Hypotheses Development

2.1 Fin Tech (MoMo) adoption and Women Entrepreneurial Intention:

2.2 Fin Tech (MoMo) adoption and Financial inclusion:

2.3. Financial Inclusion and Women Entrepreneurial Intention:

2.4 FinTech (MoMo), Financial Inclusion and Women Entrepreneurial Intention:

3. Research Design

3.1 Sample Selection & Data

3.2 Study variables

3.3 Evaluation of the variables used

4. Results

5. Findings

6. Discussions

7. Directions For Future Research

8. Limitations Of The Study

Declarations

References

Tables

Additional Declarations

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